LIBOR (FSA Investigation)

Debate between George Osborne and Steve Barclay

Thursday 28th June 2012 Commons Chamber

[Mr Osborne]

It is entirely up to the Treasury Committee to decide how it wishes to conduct its business.

This Government are introducing far-reaching changes to our regulatory system and the structure of our banking system. It is far from clear that that receives the support of the shadow Chancellor. He has gone out of his way to point out what he thinks are the flaws in the Financial Services Bill, and he has gone out of his way at the Dispatch Box to defend the tripartite system that he designed. The hon. Member for Rhondda (Chris Bryant) talks about all-party consensus; let us have all-party consensus on clearing up the mess that the previous Government presided over.

[Stephen Barclay (North East Cambridgeshire) (Con)]

First, I declare that before I joined the House, I worked for Barclays—[Laughter]—and before that, the FSA.

As the Chancellor may recall, I wrote to him on 7 February calling for a change in the way fines were treated, and for an amendment to paragraph 16 of schedule 1 to the Financial Services and Markets Act 2000, so I welcome his announcement that other banks will not profit from the wrongdoing of banks that have breached rules.

I turn to an issue that the former Chancellor, the right hon. Member for Edinburgh South West (Mr Darling), picked up: the ability to take enforcement action against senior managers, particularly at executive level. Lord Turner set out in his RBS report the difficulties of that, in terms of the evidential level required. Can the Chancellor update the House on when a response, in the form of a discussion paper from the Treasury, will be forthcoming? Will it be before the summer recess?

[Mr Osborne]

I am grateful to my hon. Friend for sharing his CV with the House. [Interruption.] At least he did not work for the shadow Chancellor. The answer to his question is that we are publishing the consultation next week.

Oral Answers to Questions

Debate between George Osborne and Steve Barclay

Tuesday 21st June 2011 Commons Chamber

[Mr Osborne]

I blame the Labour Government. During the election campaign, the Labour Home Secretary said publicly on television that police numbers would have to be cut if Labour was re-elected.

[Stephen Barclay (North East Cambridgeshire) (Con)]

T3. What assessment has my right hon. Friend made of the cost to the public finances of an emergency cut in VAT and the disastrous impact that would have on debt interest?

[Mr Osborne]

The estimate is £51 billion over this Parliament, which I guess is just another nail in the coffin of the shadow Chancellor’s economic credibility.

Oral Answers to Questions

Debate between George Osborne and Steve Barclay

Tuesday 22nd March 2011 Commons Chamber

[Mr Osborne]

We got into office in 2010-11, and we abandoned those spending plans for the years ahead.

[Stephen Barclay (North East Cambridgeshire) (Con)]

The Chancellor has a strong commitment to open and transparent government. Will he therefore ask his officials to look again at the number and value of special severance payments paid by foundation trusts, which must be reported to his Department but which his Department is not currently willing to disclose?

Proposed Public Expenditure Cuts

Debate between George Osborne and Steve Barclay

Monday 13th September 2010 Commons Chamber

[Mr Osborne]

The hon. Gentleman would know, first, that we are creating the new Work programme, which we believe will help people currently looking for work to get the skills and support they need to get into work. It will be a far better system than the one we inherited. Then there is the broader debate, alluded to in a number of questions, about how we reform the out-of-work benefit system to reward work and give people a greater incentive to take on additional hours of work. That is absolutely central to the debate.

[Stephen Barclay (North East Cambridgeshire) (Con)]

The recent independent report by the National Audit Office found that on the last Government’s cost-reduction targets for 2010-11, only one Department had achieved even 50% of that target; that of the savings reported, only 38% could be relied upon; and that one Department had the distinction of achieving even less than 5% of its cost-reduction target. What representations has my right hon. Friend had on how to make up that shortfall?

[Mr Osborne]

Not many, is the answer. My hon. Friend is right to draw the House’s attention to the fact that what we used to hear from the Labour Government about efficiency savings—in the press releases issued at the time of their last Budget—was all guff. Anyone who has examined whether any of the former Government’s claims stack up has found that they do not. It is another part of the Labour party’s fraudulent record.